Omni-ID Expands Line of Printable On-Metal RFID Labels

Omni-ID, a global supplier of industrial Internet of Things solutions, has announced the addition of five new products to its family of on-metal RFID labels: the IQ 100, IQ 150, IQ 300, IQ 500 and IQ 600. According to Omni-ID, its lineup of on-metal RFID labels offers smaller profile labels with 50 percent more read range than comparably sized competitive products, lower pricing (by 20 to 25 percent) compared with competitive products, and balanced, consistent performance, both on and off metal. The company says the new labels are suitable for monitoring IT and office assets, tools and kitchen assets, weapons, pipes and road signs, as well as for hospital tracking applications.

The IQ products support the EPC Gen2v2 RFID specification, Omni-ID reports, and have been designed and tested to provide compatibility with all leading thermal RFID printers. The company also offers additional memory, encoding, color printing and custom form factors. The labels' construction is designed to provide reliable performance, according to the company, even when applied to curved surfaces in industrial applications, such as pipes and cylinders.

An IQ 150 tag attached to the back of an iPhone

The IQ labels are available with Impinj's Monza R6 chip, which offers 96 bits of Electronic Product Code (EPC) memory, or the Monza 4QT tag chip, which has 96 bits of EPC memory and 512 bits of user memory.

The IQ 100 measures just 40 millimeters by 40 millimeters by 1 millimeter (1.6 inches by 1.6 inches by 0.04 inch) and weighs just 0.35 gram (0.01 ounce). The IQ 150 is ultra-thin, measuring 60 millimeters by 12.5 millimeters by 1 millimeter (2.4 inches by 0.5 inch by 0.04 inch) with a ground plane—60 millimeters by 12.5 millimeters by 0.9 millimeter (2.4 inches by 0.5 inch by 0.04 inch) without a ground plane—and weighing just 0.25 grams (0.009 ounce). Equally thin is the IQ 600, which measures 100 millimeters by 24 millimeters by 1 millimeter (3.9 inches by 0.9 inch by 0.04 inch) with a ground plane, or 100 millimeters by 24 millimeters by 0.9 millimeter (3.9 inches by 0.9 inch by 0.04 inch) without a ground plane. The IQ 600 is an upgrade from an earlier version, unveiled in 2012 (see Omni-ID Introduces Printable On-Metal RFID Labels). Not yet available, the IQ 300 has a 3-meter (9.8-foot) read range and a narrow form factor, and the IQ 500 has a global frequency and long read range.

The IQ 100, IQ 150 and IQ 600 are currently available, while the IQ 300 and IQ 500 are expected to be made available during the coming weeks. The company is now taking sample requests.